Arrived in Mohave, CA

This was a very hard day due to the extremely strong winds against us... We're now at a Motel 6 preparing diner.

We'll try to sleep as early as possible to face another long day tomorrow towards Bakersfield, CA!

Pause to recover

We're almost in the middle point where there is a gas station, just 12 more miles.

Lunch time!!

We had a great time here and are now ready to move foward.

Going towards Mohave City, CA

We should get by 5:00 pm so we will certainly go through some very high temperatures today.

Day 52 – 05/24/2012 – Williams, AZ

We left the Grand Canyon rim right after dusk and started our ride towards Williams, AZ. We had in mind ride for about six hours, sleep from 3:00am until 9:00am and then ride towards a city called Seligman. However the elevation had something else for us in mind.

As soon as we left the rim we started descending towards the Grand Canyon Village. There we stopped to get coffee and change our clothes for thicker ones, after all we were about to ride the whole night and temperatures were dropping quickly.

After a few minutes there we started moving towards Williams. We had planned dividing the way in two parts: the first half up to a gas station in a small city called Valle. After that we would do one more 30 miles push and get to Williams as fast as possible. It turns out the first half was just like we had planned.

We rode without much trouble, mostly downhill for the first fifteen miles and then uphill, but still we were able to progress without much trouble. The sky was completely covered by starts as I have never seen it. I believe being so far away from any big cities have a lot to do with it, but also the fact the air seemed really clean and we were at 8000 feet of altitude. All that contributed for a spectacular view. I spent good part of the ride looking upwards.

Then something new happened: I saw a shooting star, the first one I have ever seen in my life! The myth says we were supposed to make a wish right away when we see one and it will become true, but I wasn’t really prepared for it so I just wished I could see another one to make my real wish, then I spent a few minutes thinking what that wish would be. It turns out my first wish became true in a spectacular way: a shooting star with an intense green light passed right in above us, really close. We could even see its tail made of smoke. In fact, it was so close the truth is we almost got hit by a meteorite.

This time I made my real wish. Later that night, we saw two more shooting stars, and I asked for the same thing again and again just to make sure. I can’t tell you what it is though, else it won’t become true.

We kept moving forward until we finally hit that middle point in Valle. We stopped, eat a few sandwiches and rested. All stores were closed at that time so we just set nearby a gas station. After about thirty minutes we resumed the ride. However, after that stop and having eaten something helped us get even sleepier. At some point my eyes were closing while pedaling and keeping the bicycle balanced became a real challenge.

During this time a few cars passed by us in the opposite direction. One of these cars had a strong blue front light, and against that light we saw a big cat-like feline crossing the road right in front of the car. I couldn’t be sure what feline was that, but it wasn’t a very good sign for sure.

That’s when I started hearing something walking side-by-side with us through the plants outside the road. The steps got closer and faster, and I couldn’t really see what animal was there. I screamed to my uncle to move faster a couple of times and sprinted as quickly as I could I saw my uncle was also very fast on his bike, and while we moved uphill with all energies we had left we both could hear the animal chasing us. The idea of having something running after us without barking and in the darkness of the night was as scary as it gets. After about a minute running whatever was chasing us gave up and we slowed down.

We kept riding many hours after that. The more we progressed the sleepier we would get and the elevation was very intense. We were not moving faster than 5 mph. As the time passed the sun started to rise until the sun light was strong. By 5:30 am we entered the Williams city limits.

It was too early to check in a hotel, so we found a McDonald’s and eat breakfast. We were very tired so writing down daily summaries was not something we could do. We tried to keep ourselves occupied with the computer, and by 10:00 am we decided to try to check into a hotel. Sure enough we were able to do that without issues.

We then showered and went to sleep straight. I kept sleeping up to 9:00pm, but my uncle woke up in the afternoon and went out to have his bicycle’s rear break fixed, cut his hair and see the city. When I finally woke up we went out for a walk in downtown which was really nice. Williams is a great touristic destination due to its proximity to the Grand Canyon, with many shops, restaurants and country bars.

After about an hour walking we returned and slept the whole night as well.